Suppose we were to ask, “Are athletically gifted people better than the others?” The answer would be, “They are probably better at sports, but not necessarily at other things.” Similarly, intelligent people are generally better than unintelligent people at mathematics, quantum physics, and making sense of complex concepts. The qualifier, “better than” requires specifying a domain for comparison.
If we ask, “Do intelligent people have higher morals than unintelligent people?” we would be faced with defining what is meant by “higher morals.” Certainly, there are intelligent people who are or were in prison, such as the investor charlatan, Bernie Madoff and the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, although most inmates are of lower intelligence.
If “better” is intended to mean “worthwhile” or “more important” then we face the challenge of defining worth or importance. A stable society requires that a population have people of various intellectual abilities. A few years ago, Harvard University began to enrol some students who did not have stellar SAT scores, because they found that an environment in which everyone had outstanding academic credentials was stressful for all but the very best students. “Salting” the population with students of more moderate ability seemed to relieve the pressure for academic performance.
For stability, a society requires people of all intellectual levels. A society composed almost entirely of highly intelligent people might resemble academic departments where rivalries and competition for recognition result in bitter disputes. A quote often attributed to Henry Kissinger is, “The reason that university politics is so vicious is because stakes are so small.” Indeed, people of high intelligence can be as petty and irrational as those of modest intelligence.
A society composed almost entirely of people of low intelligence would not have the levels of technology that we currently enjoy and would be subject to superstitions and tribal loyalties that would spawn the kind of tribal violence that we see in today’s world, and there might be less hope for a rational, dispassionate resolution.
As Aldous Huxley suggested in his novel Brave New World, a stable society has need for people of all intelligence levels, from the Alpha’s to the Epsilons.
